


Hitokiri Battousai

by Legume_Shadow



Series: Echoes: A Peacemaker Kurogane/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover [8]
Category: Peacemaker Kurogane, Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Author Loves Writing the Meiji Revolution, BAMFs, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-30
Updated: 2012-05-30
Packaged: 2017-12-28 06:32:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/988844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legume_Shadow/pseuds/Legume_Shadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The plot to kill the infamous Hitokiri Battousai has failed.  As the Oniwabanshuu are called in to clean up the mess and scout the site, data is gathered from all over Kyoto and her outskirts to prepare the city and her inhabitants for the plunge into chaos yet again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First Publishing: May 2012. All copyrights apply to the appropriate parties and no profit is being made from this fanwork.

**Part 6: Hitokiri Battousai**

**Chapter 6.0**

_Year: Lunar New Year to Early Spring 1866_

 

The appearance of Kyoto Oniwabanshuu leader, Kashiwazaki Nenji, at the doorsteps of the Shinsengumi headquarters was highly unusual, for the small branch that operated in the capital kept their distance and had their own affairs to tend to. They were not usually involved in any of the Shinsengumi’s matters, except of course when information found by their operatives needed to be passed on to the Shinsengumi’s own shinobi. It was, however, by pure coincidence that he arrived at the entrance to the compound just as the litter bearing Commander Kondou arrived, and thus, he was readily admitted without fuss and immediately granted an audience with the commander and vice commander.

“I think you made the target too bloated, Susumu,” Kai said, twisting a few strands of straw together before he wrapped it around the base of a sheaf of hay covering two long sticks tied in a cross-like manner. “Our knives won’t be able to sink into tubby-san here.”

“That’s the point,” Susumu said, adding a few more layers of hay to the practice mannequin before setting the rather heavy and large thing down. “I was studying something similar to this a few weeks ago, there is a rather large difference in medically treating a person who is overweight and one who is normal.”

“I think tubby-san here is more like to die from overeating than from a blade, man,” Kai said, arching a quizzical eyebrow at him. “I mean, if we use a lot more force than normal, our blades still won’t get through the layers of fat. I'd choose poison as the method for putting tubby-san out of his misery.”

“There are other areas in which we can target, Kai.”

In a rather loud whisper that was made to sound conspiratorial, but still audible enough for Susumu to hear, he heard Kai say to Aya, “You ever see a fat shinobi rooftop hopping?”

If Kai was hoping to bring a smile to the perpetually somber-looking kunoichi’s face, his words did not work as planned for Aya answered with a curt, “no,” before returning back to her own work in making a practice mannequin.

“Hey guys,” the voice of Nagakura called out to them, causing all three to pause in their work and look up to see the Second Unit Captain approaching. “Kondou-san is looking for all three of you. He’s in his office.”

“Thanks,” Kai said, as the three of them cleaned up, set aside their projects, and hurried to the commander’s room.

Susumu was surprised to see the Kyoto Oniwabanshuu leader sitting in the commander’s room, along with the vice commander when the three of them arrive. Only three times before, had he seen the Oniwabanshuu’s Kyoto leader – once when he had been very young, the second when Ayumu had taken him to their Kyoto base and introduced themselves when they had first arrived in Kyoto, and the third was at the defense of Hamaguri Gate. All three times, Susumu had gotten a rather strange impression of the man with the curious mustache and goatee. However, he did learn quickly that Kashiwazaki Nenji was constantly referred to by those within the Oniwabanshuu by his nickname of ‘Okina’, or very occasionally, ‘Old Man’ by some of the more senior members who knew the man better than he did.

After the three of them were seated, Commander Kondou said, “Kashiwazaki-san here has requested the three of you to accompany him on a task. Since we’ve been having some quiet weeks, I’m sure Shinomori-san can do the rounds himself, since he has proven himself to be quite competent. I’ll turn it over to Kashiwazaki-san to explain the details.”

“Thank you, Kondou- _kyokuchou_ ,” the old man replied, bowing a bit before turning his sharp gaze to the three of them. Susumu could not help but shiver inwardly at the glance – despite the clothes he wore, he felt naked under the harsh, almost judgmental gaze of the Kyoto Oniwabanshuu leader. “A day ago, a messenger appeared at our doorsteps with a request for us to go to Otsu. I have procured horses and we will need to leave immediately as this may be related to in a somewhat oblique manner to the Shinsengumi. I need all three of you to be fully armed for this.”

“Sir, should we not at least have a unit of Shinsengumi members with us then?” Susumu heard Kai ask, voicing the question that was most likely burning in unison between the three of them.

“As I said, the request may or may not be directly related to the Shinsengumi. If it is and we need reinforcements, we will send for it. If it isn’t, then no one here needs to worry. As I was told and by what you have seen in the past few weeks, it’s been quiet.”

“The patrols will continue, but we will put at least a unit on standby, should you need them, Kashiwazaki-san,” Hijikata spoke up.

“Thank you,” the old man replied, bowing slightly towards Hijikata before turning back to the commander and said, “there are many more details, but I am afraid that they will need to be discussed on our way to Otsu. I thank you again, for allowing these three to accompany me. We should not be gone for more than a couple of days.”

“Good luck and may fortune be with you,” Kondou said.

 

“Yah know, Tatsu-nii,” Tetsu said as he and his brother carried the sacks of vegetables that had survived the winter they had received from a local farmer in the area, “I think Aoshi is going to get taller than me.”

“Tetsu…” Tatsu said, with an exasperated look on his face. “Not this again…”

However, before Tetsu could launch into yet another complaint on how it was not fair that he was shorter than someone who was younger than he was, the two brothers were interrupted out of their reverie by the sounds of multiple footsteps behind them. Looking behind, Tetsu’s face split into a wide grin as he waved with a hand, shouting, “Okita-san!”

A smile graced the First Unit Captain’s face as he and his patrol unit caught up with the two. “Tetsu-kun, Tatsunosuke-san,” he greeted. “Thank you for all of your hard work in bringing the vegetables back to headquarters. We are just about done with our patrol. Would either of you mind if we accompanied you?”

“No problem!” Tetsu answered enthusiastically for both of them. “Anything strange going on around the capital?”

“No, it is just the usual,” Okita answered.

As Tetsu, Okita, and the others rounded the last corner that would take them to the long stretch of road that led to the entrance of the West Hongan Temple, where Shinsengumi headquarters were, they saw horses, and a few people milling about the entrance. Tetsu watched as four people dressed completely in black swung themselves up on the horses and galloped the beasts towards them. Wisely, everyone moved to the side as the four horses and their riders tore through the road, hurrying their way to somewhere.

Tetsu only had a split second to see, but he thought he saw Susumu, under the black uniform and head covering he was wearing, recognizable only by the spiky hair shooting out from the top of the head covering. “Hey,” he said as he turned to see the riders quickly disappear down the road, “I think that was Susumu…”

Though it was strange to see four shinobi riding off into the distance, the patrol unit did not increase their pace, and so Tetsu stayed with them, though he was curious as to what had happened. He had never seen Susumu or any of the other shinobi ride a horse off towards the capital before, but when he and the others finally arrived back at the compound, he saw Aoshi standing near the entrance, with a pensive look at a folded piece of paper he was holding.

“Aoshi!” Tetsu cried out, causing the young shinobi to look up and tuck the paper into a sleeve. “Do you know what’s going on? I thought you went with them?”

“My master, Susumu-san, Kai-san, along with our leader of the Oniwabanshuu that serve Kyoto, have left for Otsu. They will return in a few days.”

* * *

As soon as the horses and their riders hit the outskirts of the city, three of them peeled off, heading towards Otsu, while one lone rider headed towards a seldom-used pathway up through the hills that would eventually lead into the deep, isolated mountains.

Aya slowed her horse down to a trot as she entered the first of many dense sets of forest that surrounded the capital. According to the rough scrawl that the old man had given her, the area was a rough estimate of where a legendary swordsman could be found. Bandits who preyed on the helpless around the mountains were rumored to have met their demise with this supposed legend, and the rumors had been quite persistent throughout the years Aya had been serving in the field.

The legend was mostly centralized around Kyoto and a few of the outskirt villages, but just recently, the old man, Okina, had come across a particular story that he had told all of them. Her curiosity about the infamous assassin had led her to make an effort to study how the infamous Battousai killed and what sword style he used, but there was a very distinct lack of knowledge on just what style the Battousai used, other than most, if not all the time, all the kills were one-hit only and very indistinct. However, there were similarities between the legends and the Battousai.

The current rumor that the old man received was eerily similar how the Battousai had killed one of his victims, and it was located in the mountains. Aya could not help but shudder to think that perhaps, there were two Choshuu Hitokiri who used the same style, for where Okina, Kai, and Susumu were headed was Otsu. She did not know the details of the operation at Otsu, but all she could infer from that was that the Shogun considered the Battousai a very high threat to have hired several assassins to kill him, and also devise traps using one of their many inside moles in the rebel forces. A survivor had made it back to Kyoto and to the Aoiya and had only told the old man that some clean up was needed before he had passed out from the wounds he had sutained.

Said survivor was slowly making his way back to Edo to give his report. It was too vital to be sent via hawk. The old man had not specified what the ‘clean up’ was, and therefore, could only assume the worst, hence all of them armed to the teeth. She hoped that the ‘clean up’ needed would be the disposal of the Battousai’s body, for she was no fool to think she could ever kill the assassin.

Pulling out the rough piece of paper that contained the scrawl, it seemed that this latest rumor was pointed towards Arashiyama. Putting the paper back into her tunic, she spurred her horse back into a gallop and pressed on.

* * *

Villagers on the outskirts of the sleepy town of Otsu dove to the side as three swift riders passed by. Susumu glanced over to see only surprise on many of the villagers’ faces and he could not feel anything strange out of the ordinary. _The old man said that the survivor came down from the hills. These people don’t seem to have known anything that has happened_ , he thought to himself as the three of them galloped through the town.

As their horses raced up the hill, brown grass started to turn frosty and soon, they were surrounded by bare trees and snow. Even though it was late winter and almost spring, the new lunar year still brought snow, and it seemed that it had not melted just yet up here. Sunset was starting to creep into the day, and it was half-way up the hill that the three of them stopped and lit a few kindling for the lantern that Okina had procured from a saddlebag.

Their pace slowed considerably as the cold chill of the late winter settled in and the snowy trail up the hill got more treacherous for the horses to gallop on. It wasn’t until the moon started to rise over the bare treetops that Susumu thought he saw a small structure in the distance. Even though the whinny of the horses being stopped before they even got remotely close to the structure was soft, to Susumu, it still sounded quite loud in the silence that enveloped the place.

He shuddered, from both the cold, and from the bleak feeling he was getting from the place as the three of them dismounted. As Kai drew his short blade out, so did Susumu, while Okina drew out one of his tonfa and held the lantern ahead of them. They approached the structure, but despite keeping his senses alert, he could hear nothing out of the ordinary.

He saw Okina nod to Kai to come around the other side, while he stayed behind the old man, watching their backs and occasionally looking around to see if anything was about to ambush them. However, when they emerged into the clearing, the light from the lantern painted a picture of red on white snow that covered the entire area. None of them took a step forward, but Susumu was not the only one who had noticed that the puddles of blood splatter were already frozen, and that the body that laid in the middle of the splatter had already a thin layer of frost on it.

The old man snapped all of them out of their fugue by swinging the lantern from side to side, seeing if any other bodies were near by, but Susumu could not see anything. The three of them slowly approached the body, with the crunch of the frozen blood mingling with the snow clearly audible in the silent clearing.

Okina unceremoniously nudged the body over with a foot, and Susumu faintly smelled the awful aromatic scent of fecal matter escape – it was a good thing it was winter and not summer – the smell of a dead body with loose bowels was almost always overwhelming, and when combined with the rotting corpse in the hot sun, well...Susumu was grateful it was not the hot season.

The lantern painted over the dead body, showing just how exactly this muscular man died – with a large gash that ran from his left shoulder and diagonally down to his torso, ripping into his heart and spilling half of his guts out onto the ground. The way the man had been killed was surgically brutal.

“This man was the Shogun's personal bodyguard,” the old man quietly said as Susumu heard Kai step away to search around the clearing for anything else. “I was aware of this operation they had here in the woods, but to see this done...the Hitokiri Battousai certainly is a viciously savage killer.”

“What operation?” he asked.

“Our _Okashira_ had heard of the troubles not only the Shinsengumi, but all other patrols within Kyoto were having with the Hitokiri Battousai,” Okina said. “He brought it up to the Shogun, and to match this menace, the Shogun assigned his personal bodyguard to deal with the issue. Our _Okashira_ petitioned to have us participate in it, but his petition was rejected for reasons unknown to me. I do know that the Yaminobu group was enlisted in this operation and that only one of them survived. I don't know much else, except that at least one of the samurai families begged to be a part of this operation...I think it was the Yukishirou family.”

“I found tracks!” Susumu heard Kai say, interrupting whatever else the old man was about to say.

The two of them hurried from the body and to where Kai was. The lantern that the old man carried illuminated footprints, along with what looked like drag marks in the snow that was interspersed with blood. The tracks didn't look fresh, and neither did the blood, but the three of them held out a possible hope that perhaps, the entire failed operation of killing the Battousai had not failed. Without a word, the three of them quickly followed the tracks, keeping their senses alert for any ambush as they made their way down the mountain.

The first unusual thing they encountered was a rather massive crater that had flattened several trees that had been ringed around the edges. Even the lantern that that Okina carried barely illuminated the other side of the crater. Kai crouched down and raised his fingertips to his lips, taking a tiny lick of the dirt. Spitting it back out, the big man said, “Firecracker gunpowder, probably Chinese import. The crater is shallow, so the explosion was probably designed to blind rather than kill, though who ever triggered it most likely did not survive, since that type of powder has a short fuse.”

“The tracks lead around the the crater,” the old man curtly said, nodding at the assessment. “Lets go.”

The three of them continued down the cold, silent mountain, but nothing, not even the usual yowl of a hungry nighttime predator was heard. As eerily quiet as it was, the three shinobi encountered the second unusual thing, which was an even deeper crater than the first one. Kai did the same thing he did at the first crater and said, “Could be western gunpowder...I'm not too sure, but from the size of the crater, this was definitely a much larger explosion and would have damaged the Battousai's ears, if he had been standing near it.”

A sudden cold wind blew by, and with it, Susumu thought he smelled the faint scent of something burning. A quick glance over at his two comrades confirmed the same thing...something _was_ burning. They quickly made the rest of their way down the mountain, and when they emerged from the forest, they heard the crackling of wood being burnt in the distance and saw smoke rise up. Still aware that they were not out of danger just yet, they crested the hill, only to come face to face with the dying blaze of a hut on fire.

It did not escape their notice that the tracks with the blood trail ended at the burning house, and the three of them could only watch as the fire burnt itself out. Had the Hitokiri Battousai died in the blaze, Susumu was not sure.

“You said that the Yukishirou family wanted to participate in the operation, old man?” Kai suddenly asked.

“Yes,” Okina answered.

“I remember hearing about Yukishirou Tomoe's fiance, Kiyosato Akira, being killed in Kyoto while serving in the Mimawarigumi while I was stationed in Sendai,” the shinobi said. “I had been ordered to prevent a cousin of Kiyosato from storming to Kyoto to get revenge for his death. Could Yukishirou Tomoe have asked to help in this operation?”

“It may have been so, if they were to try to use the honey trap concept that has worked so well for other assassins and corrupt officials,” the old man replied. “Come, we have a body to bury. This fire will burn itself to the ground, and then, we can see if the Battousai has been killed, once and for all.”

* * *

A full night of riding through the hills that eventually merged into Arashiyama proved fruitless in Aya’s search for the legend. As the first light of the new day shone through the bare trees, she got off her horse at a nearby stream and took a break to sip some cold mountain water. Feeling more refreshed, she carefully led her horse through the stream and continued on her way. A few minutes later, the woods receded into a small patch of fields and revealed a rather one-sided fight that left several dead bodies in the field.

Tying her horse to a nearby tree, she quickly pulled out a short blade and looked around. She could hear nothing and could not sense anything amiss out in the field, but judging from how the blood still oozed from the mortal wounds inflicted upon the dead persons, the kill was recently, only about an hour or two ago. Some of the wounds looked similar to how the Battousai had killed his targets…

She carefully looked around the field, noticing a few hoof tracks of cows and the parallel tracks of a cart being dragged behind around the scene where the dead people were. There were also a few smashed up vegetables and some small piles of hay, but the dead bodies were definitely not dressed in the manner of farmers. Swords that had fallen from their grips and had ended up either in the grass or stabbed awkwardly into the earth.

Suddenly, she sensed a presence before the rustle of footsteps and clothing crunching through the lightly snow-covered ground was heard and looked up, on guard and ready to attack. Emerging from the other side of the small field through some dense spindly bushes was a tall, broad-shouldered, and quite muscular-looking man who had a sharp, angular-looking face and unkempt-looking black hair. He was dressed in a blue-colored gi that was tucked into farmer’s pants, and had a white cape that had a bright red inner lining He was carrying a shovel in one hand along with a jug of sake in the other. There was a katana strapped to his waist.

The man stopped where he was, when he saw her, and for a moment, neither of them moved as they mentally assessed each other and the threat one posed to the other.

“If you’re picking through them, the least you could do is drag them over here and help me bury these bodies, kunoichi,” the man suddenly said in a condescending tone, taking a few steps forward and placed his jug down next to a rock and began digging.

Aya was caught off guard by the casual tone that the man used, but she was also bristling at how arrogant the words were. Sheathing her blade, she knew that she could just simply walk away, but there was something about the man and the dead bandits that told her instincts that she needed to stay. Silently, she acquiesced to his rude request and started to drag the bodies over.

The sun was starting to set by the time she and the tall man were done with burying the bodies and it was then, that the man, leaning up on his shovel and taking a swig out of his sake jug said, “You're an assassin, aren't you?”

Despite the surprise at his correct assessment and bewilderment as to how he exactly had found out what she did instead of wildly guessing that she was merely a spy, she kept the shock from her face and merely took a silently drink out of the small pouch of water that had been strapped to the side of her horse. “What is a swordsman of such a high caliber as you doing all the way out here?” she demanded. “You killed them in the same way that the Hitokiri Battousai killed them.” The fact that the man had come back to bury the dead and made no qualms or gestures to avoid the fact that he had killed the men confirmed to her that this person was the legend that was spoke of.

“I can ask the same of you, assassin,” the man answered arrogantly, irritating her. “Has the conflict of mere men down the mountain gotten so desperate that they now ask for women to kill for them?”

She refused to answer his goading question and settled on just giving the arrogant swordsman a cool glare.

“If you think I know the whereabouts of my former idiot-apprentice, I do not know,” the man said, and this time, Aya could not keep the surprise from appearing on her face – this person was the Battousai's _master_?! Reacting to her look, she saw the man frown before flippantly saying, “Don't act so shocked, kunoichi. I know that you've known for a few hours now that it was I who killed these men in the same style that the 'Hitokiri Battousai' plaguing your streets of Kyoto has killed.”

“Why didn't you stop him?” she asked.

“That arrogant whelp is too pure. He left on his own to find his own way. The sword style that I used and taught him is only a tool of murder, not of protection,” the man answered in a matter-of-fact tone. “I'll tell you this, kunoichi, so that perhaps you and the others who hunt him may have a chance to live if you ever encounter him. Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu is the most powerful sword form in all of Japan, but he never mastered it.”

“You aren't concerned if we kill him?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest, almost in disbelief.

“If I was, you'd already been dead several hours ago and I would be pouring sake over your burial mound in honor of how valiantly you fought, for an assassin.”

“Then let us pray that we never cross paths again, master swordsman,” she said, ignoring the jab, uncrossing her arms and walked to her horse. She mounted it and turned the beast towards the down-sloping path. There was no reason for her to kill the swordsman who had been the Battousai's master, for even as arrogant of a man, she knew that he would not interfere with what was happening in Kyoto. He was a hermit, and preferred to live his life quietly, defending the occasional tradesman passing through the region.

She turned slightly and called out to the man, saying, “What is your name, defender of the people?”

“Tell me yours and I shall tell you mine, assassin. Women tend to kill using their wiles, yet you are different. You strike as men strike their demonic foes.”

“I am a ghostly wolf among the shadows,” she answered, unnerved as to how the man knew how she carried out her assignments without even seeing her in action, though she did not express her unease. The caliber of this swordsman was extremely high – higher than the best swordsmen that the Shinsengumi had, and she hoped that her own assessment of the man was true – he would not get involved in the current situation in Kyoto. “That is all you need to know.”

* * *

The ten captains of the Shinsengumi were seated in the commander’s office, patiently waiting for their commander to speak, even though it was past midnight. Even the vice-commander and military strategist were roused and were sitting on the right and left hand side of Kondou, respectively. No one yawned and every one carried a grim look on their face, for this was considered a secret meeting.

“I thank all of you for arriving as quickly,” Kondou began at last. “As you may have noticed in the past couple of days, the majority of our spies had been absent from headquarters. They had been investigating rumors related to the rebels at Otsu and had returned a few hours prior with information that concerns not only us, but all the other groups that patrol Kyoto.

“The quiet that we have been experiencing for the past few weeks will most likely not last for long, and therefore we must be extra vigilant in our safeguarding of the peace. Before you are summaries of the investigation at Otsu, and of information uncovered about a particular swordsmanship style that one of the few Choshuu assassins uses.”

There was an audible rustling of paper as the captains picked up the sheaf that was in front of them and silently read through them. Many of the captains’ expressions got more serious than they already were and a couple even openly frowned. However, none of them said a word and eventually, they finished reading and put the papers back down.

“You may discuss this with your squads,” Hijikata spoke up, “but it is the belief of all of us that if you are ever ambushed on a patrol or in pursuit, you ten will have a better chance of killing the Hitokiri Battousai than others in your squad. Therefore, we have agreed to give you permission to engage in a personal battle, if need be, against the Battousai. With the failure at Otsu, his reinforcement of the rebels is something that we cannot allow.”

“Sir, what about the assassin Shishio Makoto?” Toudou asked.

“He is being dealt with in another manner of matter,” Hijikata curtly said, refusing to divulge any other information about the Choshuu assassin.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 6.1**

 

_A few weeks later…_

 

Moonlight streamed through the clouds, lighting patches of rooftops and streets below, though torches of firelight augmented the weak light of the night sky. The march of several feet through the streets of Kyoto on this night could be heard at every corner, but it was not the march of a patrol, but rather, the quick steps of Shinsengumi pursuing their prey. Rebel forces had been spotted by an initial patrol group and the hunt was on for the wolves of Mibu as they scattered into several large groups to try to corner the pockets of resistance fighters trying to yet again, bring harm to their home.

However, not all of the Mibu wolves took to the streets in their packs, for there were at least two shinobi with one of the main pursuing groups consisting of the First and Third units. Susumu and Aoshi raced across the rooftops in pursuit and kept a sharp eye on the streets below for any traps that would be sprung to slow either unit down. Shinobi clans that were allied to the rebels were still a threat to the Shinsengumi units in the streets below.

There was a barely perceptible nod from Aoshi as Susumu glanced over to his right, into the inky night streets – First and Third Unit had caught up with the first of the stragglers. As Aoshi peeled off to the left to circle around and plant a few diversions to try to corral the escaping rebels, Susumu darted to the right, leaping across the combatants heads and tossed a few throwing knives at those up ahead who had abandoned their comrades to the clutches of the Shinsengumi. Three of his four knives thrown struck true – two into the back of one of the pursuers, felling the rebel, while the third embedded its sharp edge into the arm of another.

With a roar of fury and pain, the one which had been struck on the arm turned and yanked the knife out, raising his sword up into the air as he spotted Susumu. An inky black figure silhouetted against the white moonlight was all the rebel saw as another knife was suddenly squarely embedded into his forehead. Susumu only carried ten throwing knives with him, and the last five had been released in quick succession against several other rebels who had turned as soon as the now-dead rebel had roared. Glittering steel sunk into three necks and faces, causing the others to turn tail again as both the initial skirmish against the stragglers and Susumu's metallic rain in the cloudless night finished.

Before the Shinsengumi's howl caught up with the second set of stragglers, Susumu was about to unsheathe his short blade and jump across another rooftop to continue to slice into the fleeing rebel forces when an all-too-familiar face stepped out into the fire and moonlight night – into the path of the Shinsengumi. He stopped cold, his blade half-way out of it’s sheathe as he stared with a shiver running down his spine.

“Red hair, cross-shaped scar,” one of members of the First Unit stated. “Hitokiri Battousai.”

A chill crept up his spine as Susumu knew that if he tried to help his fellow Shinsengumi their chances of survival was still quite slim against this impressively fast and singular opponent.

“Keep going,” Susumu heard Okita's voice call out as the First Unit Captain pushed through, unsheathing his sword. “I will handle this.”

“Yes, sir,” a few of them said, peeling off into another alleyway. Susumu knew that he should follow the others and leave this fight to Okita, but a gut feeling in his stomach told him to stay.

He crouched low on the rooftop, keeping his other sense alert to his surroundings and kept half of his mind on the surrounding battles and pursuance of the rebels as he watched the assassin silently accept the challenge as Okita drew his sword out.

The two launched at each other with blinding speed, so fast that Susumu almost did not catch the initial clash of swords (having not even seen the Battousai draw his sword due to the speed of the draw) before the force of their collision actually bent some of the walls of the houses surrounding them bent slightly inwards. Okita charged once again, and the Battousai met him head-on as Susumu saw only the quick flashes of metal reflecting the moonlight. The fight between the two greatest swordsmen was brutally vicious and _fast_. In only three seconds into the fight, Susumu had seen at least six, if not more different attacks were being traded by each swordsman to the other. Suddenly, Okita pushed back a little more as he changed his stance.

Susumu swallowed hard – that stance was the one for Okita’s signature move, _Sandanzuki_ , though in the only time he had seen it used, Okita had called it _Mumyo-ken*_. That move was the fastest technique that Okita performed. If he was showing the move only a few seconds into the fight… The _ki-ai_ that roared through the streets of Kyoto was powerful and very fearsome as Susumu saw Okita unleash _Sandanzuki_ at the Hitokiri Battousai. His eyes widened as he saw the Battousai block it, though it looked as if the assassin had to place a hand on the unsharpened back of the blade and dig his feet into the ground to keep from being thrown back from the three-point strike.

The force of their contact lasted only moments but then the red-haired assassin found unexpected strength and sent Okita staggering back. _No_ , Susumu thought to himself as he suddenly heard Okita violently cough into a hand, staggering to the side of the street before stumbling into one of the houses’ walls. _The assassin just took advantage of a sudden weakness…_

“ _Kumichou_!” a few of the members of the First Unit who had stayed behind to support their captain if necessary, shouted.

“Step aside, Okita- _kumichou_ ,” Susumu heard a familiar, deep voice say and quickly jumped down into the nearby alleyway, just as the Third Unit Captain, Saitou Hajime emerged from the small crowd. “I am partial to the scent of blood and you are in no condition to fight him. I’ll handle this.”

“Saitou-san,” he heard Okita whisper, just as he reached the First Unit Captain and waved over several members to help him. As they moved into an alleyway, Susumu was half-aware that Saitou had fallen straight into his signature technique, _Gatotsu_. The _ki-ai_ from Saitou was just as powerful as Okita’s had been, but Susumu was no longer keeping an eye on the battle between the Third Unit Captain and the Battousai.

“Let me see your face, Okita- _kumichou_ ,” he stated, as the other members of the First Unit held their captain up, worry lining their faces.

“I am fine,” Okita insisted, refusing to remove his hand from his mouth.

“No you are not, _sir_ ,” he said, using all of the visual identification training in medicine he had received in the past few months to try to diagnose the problem. In the moonlight, the First Unit Captain looked paler than he really should have been. That was not a good sign at all. He hated to do it, but this was one of the times in which he knew that the vice-commander would back up his medical assessment, since he was the only one in the group with the necessary training. “Your condition is not good. I need to see your face.”

He knew that the Third Unit Captain had an extremely good sense of smell, and if Saitou had stated that he had smelled blood, Susumu was worried. He didn’t know how many of the Shinsengumi knew that Okita had tuberculosis, but he was not about to cause panic within the group by announcing it, even now. Even he had not found out about Okita’s condition until he had been trained to look for signs of it. So far, only Okita had shown all the markers of one having the disease, but it was affecting the First Unit Captain at a very slow pace.

“I am—“ Okita began then violently coughed again, and would have sunken to the ground had the other members of the First Unit not been holding him up.

“Get him back to headquarters!” he ordered the members holding Okita up. “Three cups of warm, not hot, water. The _fukuchou_ or Takeda- _kumichou_ will know what medicine will stop the coughing.”

“Yes, sir,” the men said, half-carrying Okita out of the alley and back down the cleared streets, away from the fleeing rebels. Susumu knew that when it came to field medicine, it was the only time that any person, including the commander and vice-commander would take orders from him. He had the authority over peoples’ life and death when it came to assessing injuries incurred upon the Shinsengumi, but he vowed to himself to never abuse it.

He turned his attention back to the battle and caught the tail end of it, seeing both Saitou and the Battousai roar as they charge at each other from opposite ends of the street before their swords clashed in a crash that was almost as loud as thunder. However, the Battousai used the momentum advantage and sprinted out of the battlefield quickly disappearing into a darkened alleyway.

Susumu was about to leap back onto the rooftops to pursue when he heard Saitou command, “Hold pursuit.”

He heard scrabbling on the rooftops above and saw Aoshi jump down and land as lightly as a cat onto the streets. “Most are dead, sir,” the young shinobi said to Saitou. “We’ve captured at least four rebels, but two escaped. Shall we pursue?”

“No,” Saitou said. “They’re fleeing like dogs and won’t try that again, not for a while. Let them nurse their wounds. We’ll be waiting for them with our jaws wide open and slaughter them again if they ever try that again.” The Third Unit Captain then turned to one of the other members of his unit and said, “Go and recall all of them. Take the captured back to headquarters and also send any wounded back. We’ll regroup on the west side and help the Second and Eighth Units purge that area too.”

“Yes, sir,” the man said and hurried off on his task.

“Yamazaki,” Saitou suddenly said, turning his piercing gaze straight to him. Even in the moonlight, Susumu could see the glint of black eyes that held an almost untamable fury within the Third Unit Captain. If there were a true wolf of Mibu, Susumu was certain that the great wolf had been reincarnated into Saitou. “Go back to headquarters.” Turning to Aoshi, Saitou continued, saying, “You, boy, clear our path to the west of any traps.”

“Yes, sir,” Aoshi curtly replied and disappeared back onto the rooftops with a single leap.

Susumu was not disappointed to be sent back to the Shinsengumi headquarters – there would be members of their group that would be wounded by tonight’s ambush by the rebels and the subsequent pursuance. He had his work cut out for him and he knew that the other shinobi would be more than capable in assisting the other units in their duties. In battles or skirmishes now, he was first and foremost the Shinsengumi field medical officer, shinobi second.

 

_*Yes…Sandanzuki/Mumyo-ken is a real-life technique developed by Okita._

 

~*~*~*~


End file.
